It was bound to happen after a while, even to Cory Booker. While the Newark mayor easily won the Democratic primary for the Senate race in New Jersey this week, some liberal commentators were rolling their eyes. The bright-eyed young hero the media and blue America fell in love with 10 years ago for his bid to take over ailing Newark from a black-power machine gone to seed is increasingly processed as a bit of an empty suit.

Some of the Cory Booker fatigue is due to the choirboy earnestness. We will recall, for instance, the heroics in Newark — saving someone from a burning building, living in a grim housing project himself, etc. Everything Booker does, including his just-so speeches and talk-show appearances, is so facelessly straight-ahead that he is almost oddly free of irony or attitude for a modern politician. By all appearances, it’s heartfelt — but in this age, it can’t help seeming a tad fake to some, or even eerie, leaving some observers wondering when the real guy is going to show up. But that is the real guy.

Another thing that skews his reception is that he doesn’t have a wife and kids. Forty-three is a little old for even men not to be married when they are in the public eye of politics. It shouldn’t matter, but it does. Imagine Booker as his current self in every way, except with his wife Lori and their two sons Omar and Malcolm. Somehow the apple-cheeked quality would come off more as “family man,” and he would in general seem more “rooted,” less of a question mark.

The main criticism of Booker seems to be his open embrace of the powers that be, even while he says he speaks for the poor brother on the street. Booker hit the ground collaborating with, for example, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a free-market conservative think tank (which I used to work for), and has welcomed overtures from Silicon Valley moguls (including ones setting him up with a startup, as we have learned lately). For all of his commitment to Newark, Booker has never hinted at seeking a radically new order — his idea has been to bring Newark in line with the way the rest of America is making money.

In that, Booker disappoints those hoping he would be a black leader in the traditional sense. He’s good at saying his name with a pop on the b that subtly communicates black identity — listen to him say, “I’m Cory Bbooker” — but he isn’t the type that excites the black nationalist or the white fellow traveler. They see someone whose main niche seems to be sitting in suits talking to the man.

Of course, all indications are that this is precisely the kind of black leader that will have any real influence in American life as we move on. Booker is to be commended for knowing it and acting accordingly. However, there isn’t much drama in being that kind of black leader, however you pronounce your b’s. On that, another problem of Booker’s begins with B — Barack.

There was a time when the sheer fact of Obama’s blackness had more than a few harboring expectations beyond logic. “Yes, we can!” he intoned, and everybody went crazy — but more because of the skin color of who said it than anything else. Obama sounded like a preacher, and thus a prophet. He was going to get us beyond the partisan divide because, well, he’s wise, or … has been through the fire … or, well, O.K., is black.

We’re past that, and being a pretty color will never again get a black politician walking in Obama’s footsteps that kind of adulatory reception. Never mind that we’ve also seen that black politicians come in flavors as un-Obaman as Herman Cain and Allen West. No, from here on, our black politicians will be vetted more on the content of their character than the color of their skin, ironically enough.

Booker, therefore, won’t be able to coast on “diversity,” which leaves him with his straight-shooting, single self, more interested in setting things right than stirring up the pot. In an ideal world, it would be enough — but in this one, we’ll just have to see.

John McWhorter is an associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and the author of What Language Is (and What It Isn't and What It Could Be). The views expressed are solely his own.

John McWhorter is the author of several books, including What Language Is (and What It Isn't and What It Could Be).

You're just full of charming things to say aren't you. It doesn't work that way. Just what do you actually know about Newark anyway? Are you from there or anywhere near there? I am, and can tell you there are certain sections of Newark, such as the Ironbound section that are doing quite well. The cities you mention all have one thing in common - predominantly poor underclass. Why is there a predominately poor underclass in these cities? The legacy of slavery and segregation haven't yet been solved. I can tell you this. In my travels, and I've traveled considerably, everyplace I found poverty, no matter what race or ethnicity of the group that lived in it, the results were same: high crime, disintegrating families, poorly funded schools, drugs. Another thing these cities have in common are a history of corrupt government, and the disappearance of manufacturing jobs, destroying the tax base. Setting up a few charter schools for specially selected students many benefit a tiny minority, but the larger problem will remain and grow. These Silicon Valley moguls want to experiment and fund some special schools, fine, but they should stop hiding their billions in off-shore accounts escaping taxation. We can use that money here.

Who cares about the color of his skin, or his marital status? These characteristics do not determine his success as a senator or any other position. It is sad to see we have not evolved and progressed any more than this. Electing an African American/Black senator should not be any big deal. Nor should electing a woman or gay be a big deal. This article causes grave concern regarding the lack of intellectual and moral critical thinking ability still present in our society. But I guess the author had to try, serpent in the garden, appeal to the least knowledgeable. Trash media and manipulation at its finest.

Excellent article! Right on the money! It will, of course, put Booker supporters in convulsions, as evident in some comments here. Some just don't want to believe he is an empty suit, while others may not fully realize how far back Booker's right-wing connections go, not just to the Manhattan Institute, as mentioned here, but also to the Bradley Foundation and the GOP's attempt to garner the black vote .

I am very glad that Cory Booker is a disappointment to those expecting a "traditional Black leader".

McWhorter is, effectively, labeling Booker as a "sellout". And in doing so, he is echoing the Black pseudo-intellectuals that are quick to tear down Cory Booker for not being radical enough, while decrying the lack of Black economic progress.

Even the most radical element would concede that self-determination arises from financial empowerment. However, in the eyes of McWhorter, meeting with investors is a sign of deference, even if it yields the capital and infrastructure investment we seek. Even in the dogma of Black revolutionary thought, when Black employment and financial health are woefully inadequate, isn't wearing a suit and talking to "the Man" exactly what is needed?

Or, should Booker become a reinvented version of Sharpton/Jackson to serve as the mouthpiece for a frustrated Black public, periodically delivering soulful sermons and commentating on the ills of the Black community? This is a tradition that should be left in the past. McWhorter's assumption is incorrect. The excitement wasn't the prospect of a traditional leader. The excitement was the prospect of a non-traditional leader. An architect of real change, not just emotional appeals for abstract goals.

So we hear a lot of talk about "how black" Booker is, why isn't he married, if he is a champion of "diversity" (whatever that means), and the like.

What we do NOT get any discussion about is (surprisingly) WHAT SORT OF MAYOR HE HAS BEEN. The answer, of course, is that Booker has been an astonishingly SUCCESSFUL mayor of Newark. Shouldn't that matter? Perhaps for the "Racial Identity Uber Alles" crowd, it does not.

Stop looking for "magical negroes"! It must suck to be an earnest young black politician, only to realize you can't move in ANY direction because you've been saddled with the weight of everyone's hopes and aspirations...Not fair. When a white politician trips up, we don't see it as a failure for all white folks.

Nobody's perfect. Everybody will screw up something during their life. Booker may have his faults, but I'll take the image of a spandex-clad Cory who runs into burning buildings over 90% of our current crop of elected officials ANYDAY!

So, go ahead and point out the stains on that spandex superhero suit, I don't care. Booker is still a pretty cool guy. And stop making 'wink, wink...nudge, nudge' comments about his single status...we get the implication. And we don't care about that either.

"Yes we can" was powerful because of the WAY Obama said it, because of what it MEANT after George Bush. If you can't see that then you still have yet to pull away the veil of partisanship and seek an enlightened high ground.

Booker strikes me as a corporate conservaDem fraud, giving audience empty progresive rhetoric whilst advancing the noble cause of corporate greed, on virtually every policy issue he' advanced in office. Hence he identifies with corporatists like Mitt Romney and his BAIN CAPITAL rather than those who have lost their jobs across this land, or engineers public works giveaways to big corps financed by wall street, as his own city starves...He is uncle tom on steroids... with staged acts of heroism complete with a press following that have become urban legends that wouldn't have been necessary if he's not gutted emergency services in Newark....

This is really weak, vague commentary. The "Corey Booker Problem" seems to be no problem at all. He's winning and he's popular, how is that a problem? McWhorter thinks his problem is that there's a group of people called "some liberal commentators" who don't like Booker. --- Really? Who gives a %$ what "some liberal commentators" think? The other demographic that doesn't like Booker is apparently "those hoping he would be a black leader in the traditional sense." How many people are in that demographic? Whoever they are, I guess they will have to find and support their own "traditional" black leader and let Booker be the kind of leader he is --- successful.

The questions McWhorter should be asking are: Is Booker serving the people who elected him? Is he free of corruption? Is he competent? If the answer to those questions is yes, then he is miles ahead of most politicians in this country.

Booker has sucked up to corrupt politicians such as the for-profit prison protagonist Chris Christie and didn't say a word when Christie scheduled the $20 million primary and October general election to replace Lautenberg. Christie's intent was to make it harder for Booker to take the Senate seat and far less likely to get a major black turnout on the general election day for state offices in November.

As disenfranchisement goes, it's obviously not North Carolina, but Christie's intent isn't all that different though it's substantially more clever than those Sons of the Confederacy now running that state.

I'm getting real sick of so-called "pundits" who lace their criticisms with weasel words like "seems" and "appears to"...! He either is - or he isn't. And if you don't have concrete proof of either, don't bring it up at all.

Surprisingly, Obama's presidency has turned on the latent anti-black sentiments of many persons: in the South this could have been expected; in the middle west (Kansas et al) it has not been a surprise; but its now prevalent across the country. Booker faces this ant-black sentiment. Does he have the character and family life to distinguish himself? If he fails, New Jersey could be a Republlcan upset.

Booker's problem is not that he's single. His problem with liberals is that it was Red America and rightwing think tanks that fell in love with him over a decade ago. A decade ago he was already on the board of the leading school voucher organization, along with Betsy DeVos and the late John Walton. He spoke at the organization's (Alliance for School Choice/American Federation for Children) annual conference in 2012, along with Chris Christie and Bobby Jindal. AFC PACs have spent tens of millions of dollars supporting pro-voucher candidates and in brutal attack ads against Democrats around the country who oppose school privatization. Behind the scenes Booker has been in strategy sessions, like one at Jackson Hole in 2008, with Clint Bolick, James Bopp, Jr., Robert Cone, Steve Friess and a whos-who of conservative money.

1. There is a dire need for campaign finance reform in this country. No politician can be free of the Powers Who Be, particularly since "Citizens United." (What citizens?)

2. Pointing to Booker's single status and linking it to his age is a not-so-subtle homophobic swipe. McWhorter: the electorate is ahead of you. And if Corey Booker is not gay, if he simply chooses not to be married, I admire him for not being railroaded into conformity in deference to his political ambitions.

3. This post reminds me of the Tavis Smiley attacks on Obama. Although there's plenty of room for questioning candidates and sitting politicians, ad hominem attacks, as I think this one is, reveals more about the critic than his subject, and is particularly unfortunate to be black-on-black.

"Another thing that skews his reception is he doesn't have a wife and kids." Doesn't the poor man already have enough problems? It's a good thing he doesn't have a wife and kids. Can you imagine his wife haranguing him for running into a burning building? "And just who do think is going to take of this family after you die in a fire playing Spiderman? Who's going to take out the garbage?"

This smacks of McWhorter being in the pockets of somebody because it's such an invalid piece. He's really grasping at straws - not married? Whose mind did that even cross until McWhorter deliberately planted it right here in this article? Empty suit? Such a stretch.....

I want anyone to tell me in the history of black elected officials, be it local or federal, what did, or have they done for the black community that we can see? What attempt, any one of them made, to improve the black community. I believe they think they are there just to vote, not on legislation they created, but what other lawmakers created. As more and more blacks went to Washington, and state level, the more the black community got worse. I would like to ask Corey Booker, what is on his agenda to help the black community? If he has not improved the black community as a mayor, I do not believe it is going to happen. Newark, I believe is one of the most violent black on black crime cities in the country. So what is his platform? What is he telling the people, he will do to improve their lives? What is he going to do about crime?

@SmoothEdward1 Are you talking to me, because if you are i will tell you I have been to Newark on a couple of occasions with a narcotics task force and found nothing redeeming about the city as a hole. every city has certain area better then others newarks best is most cities worst of equal size. And I have traveled to every state and many cities and one of the worst was newark and gary Indiana both arm pits of american cities of there size. It has nothing to do with tax base, poorly funded schools and corrupt govt. It boils down to the people who live there and who runs the city. all it is good for is as a 3rd airport for NY city and the rats the crawl around the port authority.

@Other_Spaces Never happen again in your life time. Obama ruined it for every other black seeking the Oval office. Whites will not make the same mistake 3 times. History has been made the media will move onto a woman, or jew maybe a hispanic or Italian maybe they are great cooks and colorful people. But forget black not going to happen again in the next 50 years.

@JillRenshaw Successful because he is PC with everyone and is charming,dapper and intelligent not because he has really improved things in Newark. Newark is and always will be a Ghetto of a city with more of its share of crime and uneducated thugs roaming the city and using it as a garbage dumb a place to hang out on the corner and drink colt 45 out of a paper bag and collect welfare checks. With its main source of income coming from the port authority. Without NY in the shadows of Newark the city would be worse the another arm pitt Detroit.

@grape_crush I don't think the implication is of possible homosexuality. The implication/reference seems to be toward the notion that in American politics, we tend to prefer leaders who are married and have children. There are some exceptions, but when you consider that the leaders we elect are not only leaders but people who often embody our cultural and social values, then having a family is almost necessary. Sexuality aside, there is a reason why every president has been married.

@ShlomovonGlickstein Yo Shlomo, don't be a schmuck! He's probably the best Mayor Newark has had since Ellenstein! Lets not forget he IS a politician and makes for a sharp Statesman- it is about getting the job done!

I expected the comma after "out." But where it's placed makes me wonder if it's a snarky reference to you inference that there's something odd about Booker being unmarried. It could refer to him being out as Black, because I don't think there's any speculation there.

@shbkyn Nothing to all your questions, newark has one of the worst crime stats in the country. And most of old enough know what marion barry did for DC. And yet the dummy in Dc still put him back in political office what a joke.

@Openminded1@Other_Spaces Nonsense. Whether you like Obama or not, people who aren't racists will evaluate another African-American candidate on his/her own merits. I'll bet if a right-wing, black candidate for President emerged you vote for him.

@kennyk@ShlomovonGlickstein Only because he needs their vote and money, mainly money. he is articulate and intelligent but he is another under cover racist like Obama who is just smarter then the average black in politics.

@chiropter@StephanOlajide-Huesler he learned from Obama get the white vote you can not win higher office with out it. Then after your in you can be the brother you want to be and go out to dinner with O. winfrey and discuss how to fool whitey liberals in to beleaving you are not a racist.

@ToddGilbert@Openminded1@Other_Spaces that is ok they will not give an Italian a try either, i do not think a jew has chance either. I wish an Italian would run for President the food at the white house would be better, the clothes would be nicer, and a lot more sex at the white other then just in the oval office. Lets go Italian everyone wants to be italian anyway. the woman are better looking then most and who makes better shoes.

@SmoothEdward1@Openminded1@Other_Spaces Smooth right or left wing if i like a guy I would vote for him or her not just because he was black like most blacks do. If OJ got out of prison and ran for mayor of Oakland if he could being a convicted felon and all every black in oakland would vote for the thug.

@MatthewCarr@Openminded1 Nom de Plume , oh my god who are you trying to impress? Your picture says it all you silly little man bleeding heart liberal. Obama is no MLK and never will be. Obama if you could read between lines is a closet racist. Do you not read and listen to him. I really liked his son Trayvon Martin. Get real stick to tea in the am with your wife an d keep up your fancy vocabulary. what a moron.